3 Ways to Teach Your Kids About Entrepreneurship The skills and character traits children can learn as little entrepreneurs will help them thrive their entire lives.
By Matthew Toren •
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When you have kids, you want to give them everything, and more important than things, that often means teaching them the skills they'll need for a happy, confident and adventurous life. Entrepreneurship provides the skills that people of every age will need to be successful in our ever-changing world.
While kids may not be able to grasp the in-depth details of every aspect of business that we as adult entrepreneurs are responsible for, they're a lot smarter and intuitive than we often given them credit for. The skills and character traits kids can learn as little entrepreneurs will help them thrive their entire lives.
Related: Raising Entrepreneurs for a Brighter Financial Future
So if you're a parent and you want to start teaching your kids the valuable lessons of entrepreneurship, don't wait! Here are three simple ways to get started right now.
1. Build a lemonade stand.
On May 3, flocks of children from all over the country set up lemonade stands and participated in national Lemonade Day. This event started in Texas in 2007 to help teach the important basic lessons of business ownership to kids. Through a series of 14 lessons, kids learn how to set up their stand, name and market it and all the other basics of business creation and ownership.
With participating cities from every part of the country, from citrus-filled Florida to the far extreme north in Alaska (where they postpone their participation to June due to snow conditions), there is a way to get started participating in your local area.
Even though Lemonade Day has passed for 2015, you don't have to be in Alaska to get in on the action this year. You can set up your own lemonade stand with your kids and support a worthy cause in June by participating in Alex's Lemonade Days. Set up a stand from June 12 to 14 to encourage entrepreneurship and to support children's cancer research.
Find out about how to participate or support your local Lemonade Day activities or Alex's Lemonade Days through their respective sites.
2. Get the Kidpreneurs guide.
Sometimes, the hardest part of teaching anything is organizing and structuring the knowledge to share with your kids. That's why my brother Adam and I wrote a book and teaching manual for teaching entrepreneurship to children.
Related: Americans Rank This as the No. 1 Skill to Get Ahead in Life
When we became parents we were surprised by the lack of resources available for teaching our kids about entrepreneurship. When we couldn't find what we wanted, we decided to create it. We've partnered with educational organizations, schools and after-school programs across the U.S. and Canada to get the word out about how parents and teachers can get their children and students started young with the life-changing tenants of entrepreneurship.
If you're a parent and you want to teach your kids about the entrepreneurial things you do every day, but you don't know how to get started, the Kidpreneurs website is a great place to start.
3. Take a vacation.
Next time you're thinking about hitting up Disneyland or Six Flags for your summer vacation, consider a trip to KidZania instead. What's KidZania? A massive theme park for children based solely around entrepreneurship and business exploration. It may sound less exciting than a trip to the magical kingdom at first mention, but one look at its website or any of its videos and you'll want to take the kids there.
With locations all over the world, KidZania is dedicated to teaching children about the playful but important aspects of business and the adult world we live in. It's an incredibly well designed and executed idea that will have your kids playing while learning what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
Related: Mothers, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Entrepreneurs
